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Published: October 18th 2017
Our Guest House
In Old Havana, the houses are tightly packed together. This window is actually the neighbor’s, as seen from the courtyard of our guesthouse. This is the neighbor’s baby in the window staring at us. Forgive Me, O Travel Gods, For I Have Sinned...
...I am traveling on a package tour. My first since I was a teenager. I realized early on that I preferred to make my own decisions and what to do and where to go, and that I liked figuring how to get around. My resolve to avoid package tourism was reinforced in 2014 when I took advantage of
Incheon Airport’s free stopover tours of Seoul. I regretted that decision because I didn’t feel like I made a connection with the place. So, how did I end up on a tour? Jeff’s parents - Jeff Sr. and Peggy - very kindly sponsored a family trip for the four of us to Cuba. We all wanted to experience Cuba before it truly emerges from isolation and American brands saturate the place. However, it would have been unwieldy to travel with four of us in a country where we don't speak the language, and I had heard that getting around Cuba can be challenging. In addition, US citizens and residents cannot willy-nilly visit Cuba as tourists; our travels have to meet one of twelve categories of authorized travel as defined by the State Department. We therefore figured that
Committee For The Defense of the Revolution
This logo can be spotted all over Cuba. It is Cuba’s largest organization and membership is mandatory for all Cubans aged 14 and above. I’m not entirely sure what it really does, but it seems roughly analogous with Singapore’s National Trades Union Congress (NTUC). going on a tour would be the wisest option to comply with US law on visiting Cuba.
When researching tour companies to book with, I asked around to find out which companies: (1) are ethical and socially responsible; and (2) don’t require you to follow a guide with a flag. My friends steered me towards Intrepid. I had heard good things about Intrepid, so I steered Jeff's parents towards them. We chose their “
People to People” tour for US citizens because it focused on making contact with locals and learning about their way of life. All accommodation was in local guesthouses.
Sightseeing Day One
Jeff and I landed in Havana in the afternoon of October 7th. Many passengers cheered and clapped on landing. After clearing immigration and customs, we found an Intrepid rep waiting for us. She waited while we exchanged some currency. After that, we followed her to a yellow Hyundai taxi. Drats. I was hoping my first ride in Cuba would be in a vintage car. We drove for about 30 minutes to Old Havana, where the rep deposited us at a cute little guesthouse. At the guesthouse, we were reunited with Jeff Sr and Peggy, and
Old Square
Conga on stilts. They were accompanied by a bizarre figure in a blackface and big butt costume - there is picture of it in after the text section of this blog post. I cringed when I saw the costume. It got me wondering about race relations in Cuba, which is something I didn’t get a strong feel for during my time there. we also met the other three members of our group. I was relieved when I met this group; I’m a somewhat different breed of traveler from your typical package tourist, and I initially feared that there might be too much of a gulf in travel philosophies. I guess Intrepid attracts a different demographic.
At 6pm, our guide Tony came by, and he gave us a briefing before we all headed out to dinner nearby. Interestingly, when we asked our guide Tony about what he finds most difficult about American tourists, he replied without hesitation that he comes across Americans who aren’t used to group tours but who book tours to Cuba to stay in compliance with US law. He said that these travelers don’t always take well to group tours. I resolved to be ever mindful of the challenges Tony would face in herding us and to not be an obstacle.
The next morning, after breakfast, Tony came to get us for our walking tour around Old Havana. There were four squares to visit - Cathedral Square, Old Square, Main Square, and St Francis Square. Old Havana is in turns pretty and gritty, and, most importantly, it is
Revolution Square
Che Guevara’s image on a building. still lived in, so the entire landscape felt authentic, unlike downtown St. Augustine and the Centro part of Cartagena. True, there were vendors selling tourist trinkets and stuff, but there were also many locals intermingled with the tourists. It reminded Jeff and I of
Getsemani in Cartagena, albeit a less gentrified version.
We stopped for lunch at an Italian place and I was surprised when I was given the option of ordering grilled seafood for lunch. My ears perked up in disbelief when the word “lobster” was uttered. While our package cost a pretty penny, I never imagined that lobster would be included. The a la carte price was $12, I think, which is a steal by any standard. Anyway, the meal was fantastic. It included a grilled lobster, two large clams, a fillet of fish and lots of shrimp, along with some pasta.
After lunch, we trooped out to our bus to meet our driver, also named Tony, to visit sites in the Vedado area adjacent to Old Havana. Our bus for the entire tour was a 24-seater, so we had lots of space to stretch out. Sweet!
Our first stop was the Museum of the Revolution. While
Callejon De Hamel
Cool African-inspired art. the museum was interesting and I learned many snippets of information, I felt that I wasn't getting this information in their proper context, and hence I was missing the big picture. The exhibits had a anti-American slant, not surprisingly. A timeline of events and how various characters were involved in that timeline would have helped tremendously. Our next stop after that was Callejon de Hamel, a small, narrow street that had become a community art project. Most of the people there were of African descent. There was a lot of interesting street art. Tony also told us that the people there followed Santeria, but since I wasn’t familiar with that religion, I could not identify what elements of the streetscape were linked with it. We were welcomed warmly there; I got many hellos and even a hug. There were a few trinket sellers and panhandlers though. The final stop that afternoon was Revolution Square, where we looked at a grandiose monument dedicated to Jose Marti.
After dinner (another lobster! They’re cheap here), we piled into the bus and went to the Castillo de la Real Fuerza fort to witness the firing of a cannon, a nightly event taking place
Street Art
An artist’s depiction of how the 1% interacts with the rest of us. at 9pm. During colonial times, the cannon was fired to notify residents to stay within the city walls. The fort was huge; much larger than the ones I had visited in Cartagena and in San Juan. I wished we had visited during the day. Anyway, the ceremony took place with colonial enactors. It was interesting to see that locals were out in force, and not just tourists.
I bought a SIM card for emergency use to download and respond to any urgent emails or WhatsApp messages. It can only be bought before arriving in Cuba and the price was extortionate at $25 for 100MB. It has barely worked - most places seem to have no coverage. Later on, I learned that their is no meaningful data coverage for locals. Havana is one of the very few places I have been to where no one walks around looking at their phones. Anyway, I could not resist using my limited data coverage to search for Heracross, the Pokémon exclusive to Latin America. Luckily, I located him within a minute of turning on the app. This was far easier than my repeated quests in Asia for Farfetch’d. No more Pokémon Go for
me for the remainder of this trip!
Sightseeing Day Two
The next morning, we visited a few additional sites in Havana before hitting the highway west to Vinales. Our first stop was El Morro fort - not the same one we visited last night, but a smaller one adjacent to it. We stayed outside the fort and walked along the walls and enjoyed the views from there. The next stop was the Hotel Nacional, which was built in the 1950s by Americans. The hotel was grand and the highlight was a walk of fame with photographs of past visitors. Our final stop was a place called Fusterland. A local artist named Fuster installed art all around his neighborhood. He was inspired by Gaudi and so many of his installations made up of colorful pieces of porcelain. It was a very fun stop and I enjoyed it tremendously.
After this stop, we headed out to Vinales.
This experience has been a pretty positive one so far. I am learning more about the place than I ever would have if I had traveled on my own. I’m especially enjoying listening to Tony’s first person account of how it
Fusterland
Cool Gaudi-inspired figures. was like in Cuba when the country was isolated by the US, and how they adapted. The group is small and intimate and everyone is getting along well so far. I do feel a little disengaged, though, as I am not researching places to visit and how to get to them. If I had traveled here independently, I probably would have stayed at least two additional days to explore the forts, walk along the Malecon (waterfront) at sunset, cruise around in a classic car, enjoy the artdeco architecture of Vedado, and seek out the local Chinatown.
With respect to my title - Isolation and Adaptation - I hope to explore these themes in more detail in my upcoming posts. I have many little snippets swirling all over the muddle that is my brain, and I have yet to come up with a coherent narrative.
Because of all the information I have received, I have labeled my photos with more detail than usual. Be sure to read the captions.
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RENanDREW
Ren & Andrew
Colourful Cuba
Happy to see you travelling on an Intrepid trip :) It's a Melbourne company that's close to my heart as I used to know people who helped to set it up (although it's a much bigger International beast these days), they hire local guides and focus on local economies, and as you said, it's a company with a social conscience. Their Intrepid Foundation partners with fabulous grassroots organisations too. I checked out the People to People trip you are doing and I have to say it's a very different style to their usual trips...with everything being provided? I'm guessing it's because of the travel restrictions Americans face? The Grand Cuba trip we *nearly* booked with them was structured very differently. Lovely to hear that the food is good! Safe travels for the rest of the trip :)